Patch 5.4.7 - New Shop Button
Patch 5.4.7 adds a new shop button to the character selection screen, making the Level 90 Boost as the first character service that you can purchase in-game. Taepsilum responded to concerns of players upset over the addition of another shop button.

Originally Posted by Taepsilum
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

I know that for those of you who are just not interested at all in the store, these changes might seem somewhat redundant or even a bit annoying. I get that, I really do.

But please understand that a lot of players do like to use the shop, and since this is a fairly new feature (the in-game version of the shop), we want to make sure that everyone is aware of its existence and that you don't actually have to tab out to a web browser to use it.

The buttons outside of the micro-menu exist mainly because the micro-menu is one of those parts of the interface that some addons and UI packs actually hide by default, and we want everyone to know about this new functionality.

I really don't think that this is being in any way obtrusive and/or preventing you from playing the game as you have been doing all along. Now, I do understand that some players might have some more philosophical reasons to dislike it, but I still think that some are just blowing this out of proportion. It's a small button that you can choose to use or to completely ignore, it's not a pop-up window that forces user-interaction with it.

Of course there is a fine line that we don't want to cross when it comes to the number and the positioning of any kind of button within the game, too few buttons or poorly positioned ones often leads to unused/unknown features, too many, and they can become redundant or annoying. I can see that some of you are of the opinion that anything over one button is already too much.

You can rest assured that we will forward all of your feedback to the proper channels, it's important to us that everyone knows about new functionalities but obviously we don't want to cause any discomfort to anyone while doing so.

Warlords of Draenor - PvP Toggle Changes
It looks like players that don't enjoy PvP might be getting an upgraded version of the PvP toggle in Warlords of Draenor!

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

This is very simple. PVP needs to be voluntary.
Well, I understand where you're coming from, but flagging as a PvE character is based on a player's action to flag themselves (even if it's on accident), so I'm not sure it's us making you PvP. The systems that can cause someone to flag can absolutely at times be involuntary, which is notably frustrating.

In any case we are continuing toward a goal of a PvP on/off toggle for players on PvE realms to be added in Warlords of Draenor, which would absolutely and in all situations allow someone to refrain from becoming flagged regardless of their actions. Heals toward flagged players would fail, coalescing to PvP realms wouldn't be possible, misclicks and AoE's would never damage a flagged opponent, etc. It's actually quite a bit of work because of all the systems involved, but it's still something we think PvE players should have, and how the game should work for them.

Patch 5.4.2 Hotfixes: January 29

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Creatures

Resolved an issue that could cause Ordos to be stuck in evade. For targets that Ordos cannot reach, he will now summon them to him.

Quests

Family Tree: Resolved an issue where Pandaren characters were unable to see their ancestors after lighting the Incense Bundle.

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Classesdoing dps less than a dps spec I assume. If you can tank and dps at 100% why being a regular dps?
Yeah, Tank-specs should do less DPS than DPS-specs, so you don't just bring more Tanks. (Celestalon)But Vengeance makes sure that not all tanks do that much DPS right?
Not in 6.0; Vengeance no longer affects DPS. (Celestalon)What is it changed to again? Threat?
It's just the defensive side of what it does today. Will also do Threat if needed, but that's not likely. (Celestalon)I am lost as to what you mean by that, I guess I will have to wait and find out...
Vengeance currently provides a buff that has both offensive and defensive value. We'll leave the def value, remove off value. (Celestalon)Does that mean tanks are going to end up less-fun? A lot of the fun of tanking recently has come from vengeance.
Who can say if any specific change makes the game more or less fun for any given person. But no, it shouldn't. (Celestalon)
You're most likely not having fun because of Vengeance->DPS; rather because you do good damage, and the def gameplay is fun. (Celestalon)Is the idea for Tanks to just more or less do (arbitrary number) 75% of the damage of a DPS all the time?
Yes. (Celestalon)

Are you guys happy with the current DPS rankings? Casters completely dominating melees in pretty much every SoO encounter.
Our data, and community data, heavily disagrees with that. Melee are more of a liability, which we hope to solve. (Celestalon)

OK, fair. When you and your crazy brain crew crunch data, do you do APM analyses? What does it mean to you guys in that context?
We do (abilities per sec), though it's more of something to just 'keep in mind'; we don't really balance around it at all. (Celestalon)APS seems like a strange standard. Wouldn't most specs hover around 1?
No, not at all. Most don't have a 1sec GCD; spamming something on every GCD is not something we want most to do (OK for some). (Celestalon)So WoD dev vision is that GCD locking is OK for some specs? Can you explain why you changed your minds on this?
This isn't a change; we're OK with a few specs explicitly designed to be GCD locked. It's desired by some players. (Celestalon)
There have been a few cases where we've decided that specs required too high of an APM (just in terms of raw button presses). (Celestalon)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Do you have plans to address Hunter's secondary stats value? (like Warrior's haste)
Those are not even remotely in the same ballpark. But yes, we want to raise their values. (Celestalon)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator) You said we cannot switch in/out seal of faith while in combat. So could we still switch other seals in combat like SoT to SoJ?
Yes. That's expected if you take the other talent which gives you seal-twisting gameplay. (Celestalon)So does the healing bonus stackable and dispelable?
Talking about Faith again? Faith would stacks, and would not be able to be dispelled. (Celestalon)That sounds good. SRY one LAST question: Is there a cap stacks of Faith? IF YES, what number will it be?
We'd likely need to have a cap, but not one that you're expected to hit in normal gameplay. (Celestalon)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Dedicated Holy Priests raiding heroic had a hard time the past years. Representation is down to 2-5%. Is this an issue to you?
It's a potential issue that is heavily clouded by the Disc issue. (Celestalon)So you don't think it has anything to do with shortcomings with HPriest spec? Chakra reduces the usefullnes and lack of utility?
I think that if you re-read my tweet, you'll see that I didn't say that at all. (Celestalon)Then what do you think HPriest shortcomings are?
We aren't ready to announce specific changes, but the shortcomings of Chakra have been heavily discussed. (Celestalon)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)Did you ever consider Shuriken Toss to be some Rotation/playstyle changing talent like alot of hybrids have nowadays?
Do you mean like if you take that talent, then you use that as your optimal rotation, even on Patchwerk? (Celestalon)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)was idly wondering what the odds are shamans can get a passive that makes 2H weapons competitive against DW. I miss the option.
We have no plans to bring back 2H Enhancement, currently. Not 100% out of the question for the future, but not right now. (Celestalon)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)are you happy with results of Demo nerfs? Feel like it's struggling pve and pvp after imp damage and glyph nerf.uvls was enough
The community things the Demo nerfs were way more crippling than they were. There are still Demo locks doing very very high DPS. (Celestalon)
That's not to say that it hasn't ended up inferior to Affliction/Destruction in most situations; it has. But not underpowered. (Celestalon)

Reaper of Souls Collector's Edition
Blizzard showed off the contents of the Reaper of Souls Collector's Edition today.

Let me get this straight, numerous people want MORE content to hold them over until WoD? What part about new content means greater DELAYS for the expansion do you people not understand? The part where it takes longer or the part where it takes longer? Adding in a shop button probably took hours and did not affect the expansion team at all.

If I were to buy a level 90 I WOULD do it at the character screen. Button seems appropriate it's not as though it's cluttering the character screen, I barely look at the bottom left unless I have an addon that needs disabling (which I usually do in-game anyway). The button in the menu is somewhat useful, I personally disable the main interface so I can't access the feature if I wanted to. Not getting all the bitching, sounds like people wish they had money but instead of getting a job just spend their time crying instead.

How much do you want to bet that within the next year or two you will be able to purchase previous tier PVP and PVE sets from the shop as a "catch up" method. This is definitely not a far fetched or outrageous idea. And the fanbois will all defend it with the same bullshit idiot nonsense that they defend the purchasable level 90's. "Its just so people dont log in and say, oh man I need to gear up first before I can play with my friends." Hogshit. Its gonna happen. Mark my words.

Not sure what you find so funny. Yes ... as opposed to a non-paying (F2P) customer. If the game is F2P you have to suck on the things you don't like. If you're a paid subscriber you're entitled to voice your opinion.

Blizz will make a fortune with this insta lvl90 among casual pvpers. They will buy pvp fotm day one (so war atm)

Instaboosting to 90 when the level max is 100 doesn't help all that much for PvP. Sure, you could then grind through 10 levels to 100, but that'll take a little bit of time (a few weeks likely for the average player).

You also have to remember that the type of players who go for FOTM in PvP already have many characters (since they tend to jump around a lot), most who are almost max level anyway. The insta-90s aren't for them.

The Insta-90s are for people who haven't played since WotLK and are trying to come back to the game. They might have one or two 70s, and that's about it, but so much in the game has changed since then maybe they want to try a new class. They find their friends, reconnect and insta-90 a Monk and join their guild. THAT is who this is for.

I'm probably the definition of casual, but I've also played the game off and on in every expansion, and I just checked. I have two 90s, five characters in the mid 80s and five in the mid 70s. The only class I didn't have that was over 50 was a Monk (at 45) and Warlock (I've tried many times, but I jut can't get into that class at all).

So I decided to play my lvl 45 monk yesterday, with heirlooms I hit 53 in a few hours.

If they give me a free 90, sure I'll use it, but I'd never pay for one since other than the Monk, I already have at least one of each class that is within spitting distance to 90 (or there already). Most players are like this.

The "slippery slope" began six years ago with TCG, and has moved all the way to mounts, pets and vanity transmog items. At that pace, by about 2020, when WoW is in year 16 we'll see the first item on the store that actually benefits a player in game.

No it is not.
It has 0 impact on gameplay if leveling is as trivial and meaningless as it is now.

Selling gear would be pay to win in PvP.

I'm not entirely sure if pay to win even exists in the realm of PvE.
It would only be a "pay to win faster" because you win anyway.

Exactly... the issue is meaningless leveling content. Blizzard decided to not improve the gameplay... just create a grind like the F2P games do... and then charge extra.

There is plenty of Pay to win in PVE. Blizzard is doing just like every f2p game is doing. It is giving players the power to pay for less grind. The difference.... is that Blizzard is already charging players 15$ per month. And this pay to win (there is no doubt about that fact) just goes to show that the game really isn't worth the sub in the first place.

The logic that its not pay to win cause it isn't giving you the best possible stuff in the game - is just plain stupid. Blizzard crossed the line already and there is no stopping them now. Players paying for old tier gear when new raid comes? I can see that happen as early as next expansion. We are ALREADY paying for gear since the lvl 90s come with their set of gear.

It's over. PPL just have to admit it that WOW is now focused on milking as much as possible. Gameplay and core parts of RPG systems don't matter anymore. And instead of improving those features and making a good solid leveling curve that isn't focused on repetitive and outdated content... they go the other way... and make it more grindy and then charge for lvl 90s. That should tell most of the players where this game is heading.

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Originally Posted by Grishnok

How much do you want to bet that within the next year or two you will be able to purchase previous tier PVP and PVE sets from the shop as a "catch up" method. This is definitely not a far fetched or outrageous idea. And the fanbois will all defend it with the same bullshit idiot nonsense that they defend the purchasable level 90's. "Its just so people dont log in and say, oh man I need to gear up first before I can play with my friends." Hogshit. Its gonna happen. Mark my words.

Buying previous tier raid and PVP gear will happen in WOD. There is zero difference between buying already geared up lvl 90... and buying those items. They ARE already selling gear now with the lvl 90. As long as its not the very best... the logic will stick with every other item that is put in the store.

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Originally Posted by Nixius

I don't want to risk sounding like a whiny big baby but all of these shop buttons are nearing that straw on the camels back. F2P + shop = acceptable.

Sub + shop shop shop = jesus christ almighty.

They are getting away with it... so ofc they will continue to milk the cow.

Cata's end game? the 99% health reduction raid they wanted everyone to See? I dont know about Wrath . But Cata had a bad end raid. atleast SoO has some fun Fights which arent just a dps check.

You are right about Cata. The last cata-raid was really just a dps check...much more than firelands(which is why countless raids still fail and fall apart in firelands).
I ain't so sure about SoO tho....if we got twice the health and 4times the dps we got now...I think it will be as easy as the last cata-raid. Most of the mechanics just won't cut it anymore then(I was in a flex yesterday and garrosh just teleported us ONCE before going down. So these fights become extremely easy too once you really out-dps them).

man some people are just annoyed by literally everything. Why does it matter there is now a shop button above the addons button... just why....
It does not impact your game in any way. People saying it does are way oversensitive.

man some people are just annoyed by literally everything. Why does it matter there is now a shop button above the addons button... just why....
It does not impact your game in any way. People saying it does are way oversensitive.

Nah, these people arent sheep like yourself and see this for what it really is.